Lost in a dream
Nothing is what it seems
Searching my head
For the words that you said

Tears filled my eyes
As we said our last goodbyes
This sad scene replays
Of you walking away

My body aches of mistakes
Betrayed by lust
We lied to each other so much
That in nothing we trust

Time and again
She repeats let's be friends
I smile and say yes
Another truth bends,
I must confess

I try to let go, but I know
We'll never end 'til we're dust
We lied to each other again
But I wish I could trust

My body aches of mistakes
Betrayed by lust
We lied to each other so much
That in nothing we trust

God help me please, on my knees
Betrayed by lust
We lied to each other so much
That in nothing we trust

How could this be happening to me
I'm lying when I say, "Trust me"
I can't believe this is true
Trust hurts
Why does trust equal suffering

Absolutely nothing we trust

The song is about a painful relationship that Dave had:

"I could tell you a lot about it, but no matter how I justify it, it's not going to come across as painful as it was. Many times, I've had beautiful relationships destroyed by being led astray. I'm not going to say I am perfect or without blame, but I think singing about it is maybe a healing process going back into my life." (Mustaine, 1997).

"Well, you know it's in my contract [laughing] that one song on each Megadeth record has to start off with drums." (Menza, 1997)

"Weird song, but it was our first #1 song at US rock radio. The 'classical' middle section was part of a song called 'Absolution' that I had written for Countdown... We demoed 'Absolution' for Countdown... and again for Youthanasia but it didn't get used until 'Trust'. For some reason we always remembered the piece and kept coming back to it. My lead solo was one that Dann Huff and I loved, but Mustaine didn't like much. We had long discussions about it and finally we kept it." (Friedman, 2002)

The orchestral interlude in the song is done by the string section of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

This song was nominated for a "Best Metal Performance" Grammy in 1997, but lost to Tool's Aenima.

"Trust" was also released in a Spanish version, with Dave singing parts of verses and choruses in Spanish.

Almost Honest

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine, Friedman)

I lied just a little
When I said I need you
You stretched the truth
When you said that you knew
Just can't believe it
There's nothing to say
I was almost honest, almost

Living alone, can't stand this place
It's four in the morning and I still see your face

I was nearly pure
When I said I loved you
You were semi-sincere
You said I'd bleed for you
We were kind of candid
Now you've gone away
You were almost honest, almost

Living alone, falling from grace
I want to atone but there's just empty space
I can't face tomorrow, now you're not coming back
Walked off in the night and just left me the tracks

I question your call by the tone of your voice
I know I should hang up but I don't have a choice
It happened that night when you told me to go
Don't ask who's to blame, I don't know

Almost, almost honest
Almost, I was almost honest

"My fave off Cryptic... to play live. It just rocks. Cool video too. It was way cool to hear this one all over the radio in the summertime with chicks and sunshine. This is what rock and roll is all about. I used one of my fave pedals, the MXR Phase 90 on the solo. The remix of this tune is even more fun." (Friedman, 2002)

Interpretation by Tor Laneryd:

"'Almost Honest' has a theme similar to 'Trust,' but with a much lighter tone. It is about a guy who enters a relationship with not too serious intentions. He doesn't really love the girl, but stays together with her just for sex and in wait of something better. Somehow she finds out, and breaks up the relationship, but by then the guy has realized that he has fallen in love with the girl after all. Thus he was 'almost honest' when expressing his feelings for her, because he thought he was lying when he was actually speaking the truth. Unfortunately, she doesn't want to see him anymore."

Use the Man

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine, Friedman)

I heard somebody fixed today
There was no last goodbyes to say
His will to live ran out
I heard somebody turned to dust

Looking back at what he left
A list of plans and photographs
Songs that never will be sung
These are the things he won't get done

I've seen the man use the needle,
Seen the needle Use the Man
I've seen them crawl from the cradle
To the gutter on their hands
They fight a war but it's fatal,
It's so hard to understand
I've seen the man use the needle,
Seen the needle Use the Man

Just one shot to say goodbye
One last taste to mourn and cry
Scores and shoots, the lights go dim
Just one shot to do him in

He hangs his head and wonders why
Why the monkey only lies
But pay the pauper, he did choose
He hung his head inside the noose

I've seen the man use the needle,
Seen the needle Use the Man
I've seen them crawl from the cradle
To the gutter on their hands
They fight a war but it's fatal,
It's so hard to understand
I've seen the man use the needle,
Seen the needle Use the Man
Cryptic writings on the wall,
The beginning of the end
I've seen the man use the needle,
Seen the needle in my hand

This song's about a guy who died when he shoot heroine for the last time:

"I went to where this guy had lived and saw a lot of his stuff. There was a bunch of photographs of him, a Guitar Player magazine, song lyrics and a song he had written. This guy had plans. He planned on shooting heroine just one time and getting his life together, but he died." (Mustaine, 1997)

"We have a friend in town here [Phoenix] that tries to help people with addictions and he had lost a friend to an overdose. He told us the story on that." (Ellefson, 1997)

"Cheers to Dave on a great idea for the intro part. The Searchers had a hit with Sonny Bono's 'Needles and Pins' in the 60's, so what a great idea to start a song about a drug overdose with a clip from it! Classic Megadeth and very cool. This song has me playing much more guitar textures than ever before in the band. We were growing big time here." (Friedman, 2002)

The song's introduction is an old song by a band called the Searchers, entitled, "Needles and Pins," which was a tentative title for the album.

Here is an alternate explanation by Tor Laneryd:

This song is about Dave himself and no one else. Even if you didn't notice the similarities between him and the character in the song (i.e. that they are both musicians with a drug problem), Dave spells this out for you right at the end as he sings "I see myself use the needle." in the song, Dave speculates that he might have died in an overdose before his current success with Megadeth. There is also an element of perhaps not suicide but at least self-destructive behavior and indifference toward death involved, which is indicated in the lines "his will to live ran out" and "he did choose, he hung his head inside the noose". With this song Dave wants to tell us not only to avoid drugs but also that even if your life feels miserable at the moment, you shouldn't give up because things will get better.

Mastermind

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)

Anonymous existence,
Rendered useless to mankind
Destroy the logic volume
In the confines of the mind
Enmassed and purposeless,
Marching in a perfect line
Neo-neuro torture, mental meltdown,
A heinous crime

Mastermind, I tell you what to think
I tell you what you need
I tell what to feel

The slayer's arrived
On the black horse of steel
Trouble is coming
Hell on two wheels

Hide in the shadows
Awaiting defeat
Or live by the sword
And choose to be free

We say retribution
We say vengeance is bliss
We say revolution
With a cast iron fist

Coming down the road
Watching every move
Kicking in the doors
Taking what we choose

Anarchy's coming to town
A fiery invader
Burning it down to the ground
The Disintegrators

Anarchy's coming
Here it comes
Burning it down to the ground
The Disintegrators

"Cool title, very old school tune. Only Megadeth could get away with this in the late 90's." (Friedman, 2002)

The lyrics of "The Disintegrators" originated of Dave's anger, when he was waiting in a traffic jam and already late for rehearsal. It's about a group of bikers coming to a town who destroy, plunder and devastate the city without a reason.

I'll Get Even

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine, Ellefson, Friedman, Brian Howe)

I'm lonely and abandoned
Washed up, left for dead
I'm lost inside the desert
Of every word you said

Like a nuclear reactor
Or TNT
I'm thinking about the times
When you lied to me

All the innuendo
Caught up on your hook
I was just a name
In your little black book

Ah, I'll get even with you

I'm bitter and I'm twisted
I haven't slept in days
I'm lonely and I'm angry
I can't make it go away

I'm like a bomb that's ticking
I got voices in my head
I got a doll with needles in
Wishing you were dead

I'll get you back somehow
That's what I'm gonna do
I'll get you back somehow
Your nightmare coming true

Ah, I'll get even with you
Ah, that's what I'm gonna do
Gonna get even with you

You better look behind you
'Cause there I'm gonna be
I'll be standing in the shadows
With who I used to be

He's slightly schizophrenic
Me and me and me and me agree
That you are gonna pay
For what you did to me

Ah, I'll get even with you
Gonna get even with you
Ah, that's what I'm gonna do
I'm gonna...
Ah, I'll get even with you

"Everyone has someone they want to get even with. It's not about anyone in particular. It could be about a girlfriend, a manager, record company, MTV or anyone else." (Menza)

"This song idea was around forever. Bud Prager watered it down by having some old fart from Bad Company do something to it. I can't even remember what he did, but I sure didn't help make it any better, and I had to pay him for it." (Mustaine, 2001)

"We made great strides with this tune. It also translated well when we did our acoustic 'unplugged' shows all around the world. And the backing vocals were easy enough even for me to sing!" (Friedman, 2002)

Sin

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)

He had an unfamiliar face
Complete life in disarray
A simple man, power drunk
No worries of living, no more anything

Deep inside I've seen it rise
Actions progress to no end
Mirror, mirror please look inside
Do you see the reasons that we sin

Not one to be forgot
Spoiled rotten, so they say
Once burned, forever marked
Hurt by just a few but so many have to pay

Nervous, like a cat
Gonna jump through my skin
Shadows on the wall
Stretching out, grope for me

Reasons, deep in me
Let me be
Let me bleed
Set me free
The reasons that we sin

"This guitar intro took hours to nail! A royal pain in the ass!! Especially because with the Boss GT-6 effector that I use now, I could dial up that exact sound in 2 seconds! When we were writing this tune on tour, the guys on our crew seemed to really dig it as we messed with it at our soundchecks. Overall, it's a cool song, but somewhere it missed the mark with me." (Friedman, 2002)

"Dave and I started writing that song two CDs ago. It even had a different name. We all worked on it until we liked it. Now it's on Cryptic Writings." (Ellefson, 1997)

Interpretation by Tor Laneryd:

I think this song is about a mass murderer, i.e. A man who goes into a public place and kills a great many persons whom he doesn't know, without any real reason for doing so. This may seem like a bit odd theory, since there are no words like "death" or "murder" in the lyrics, and neither is there any description of the actual crime. Assuming that my theory is correct, however, this is only an example of Mustaine's great song-writing skills.

The title, "Sin," makes me think of a crime, and the line "he had an unfamiliar face" makes this a crime in which the victims doesn't know the perpetrator. That there are several victims is concluded by "so many have to pay," and you can guess that the crime is of a lethal nature by the slightly humouristic "no worries of living". Also note that the phrase following this one, "no more anything," has been used by Mustaine once before in the song "Youthanasia," here too associated with death. The rest of the first half of the song seems to either support my theory, or at least not activelly speak against it.

The second half of the song is a bit different from the first. I think this part is meant to reflect the insanity and paranoidal mentality of the mass murderer.

A Secret Place

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)

There's a secret place I like to go
Everyone is there but their face don't show
If you get inside you can't get out
There's no coming back, I hear them shout

Welcome to my hide away, my secret place
How I arrived I can't explain
You're welcome to, if you want to stay
But everyone just runs away

Let me in, get me out
Can't do more than twist and shout
Lost my soul without a trace
Found it again in my secret place
In disgrace

I hide from those that try to find me
Scary things that's right behind me
I lost myself, I must confess
I can't explain how I got this mess

"I used so many different kinds of guitars on this. I also played an 8 string bass to double some guitar melodies. I used a Jerry Jones sitar-guitar for the main riff. This was the one from our live show that made it to the Woodstock '99 album." (Friedman, 2002)

Dave says that his secret place is inside his head. I think the song's about a person getting lost in his own mind and losing touch with reality, similar to Judas Priest's "Beyond the Realms of Death."

Have Cool, Will Travel

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)

Mamas pack their lunches,
Kiddies pack their guns
Wishing it will go away,
But nothing's getting done
A shot heard 'round the world,
When a mother's baby dies
We the people, point our fingers,
Blame and wonder why

Face it and fight or turn high tail and run
'Til it comes back again like the rising sun
Say they do all they can, it's just another lie
The answer's plain to see, nobody wants to try

There's no recess and no rules
In the school of life
I f you listen very closely
You will see what it's like
Have cool, will travel

Tell myself it ain't true,
They just cannot see
Grown up or sewn up,
The medicine is worse than the disease
I have cool, will travel
Here we go

"Great title. This was the first solo I did on the album. Dann put the backing track up for me to do the solo to, and I just plugged in and kind of warmed up and tuned up my guitar to the track, and when the solo section was done, Dann stopped the tape and said, 'That's great! Good solo, Marty.' I said, 'What are you talking about?? I'm not even in tune yet. We're going to sit here and work on a great solo. There's no way I'm going to leave this garbage on a record!' He obviously had no idea what I was capable of doing, and was willing to let any old thing go by, and that really fired me up. I made sure he was going to know what kind of player I was, and from that moment on, I really played my ass off." (Friedman, 2002)

The title of this song came from a dream that Dave had, where Nick was leaving the band and "Have Cool, Will Travel" were his parting words. The song, however, seems to be about violence in schools.

She-wolf

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)

The mother of all that is evil
Her lips are poisonous venom
Wicked temptress knows how to please
The priestess roars, "Get down on your knees"

The rite of the praying mantis
Kiss the bones of enchantress
Spellbound searching through the night
A howling man surrenders the fight

One look in her lusting eyes
Savage fear in you will rise
Teeth of terror sinking in
The bite of the She-wolf

My desires of flesh obey me
The lioness will enslave me
Another heart beat my own
The sound of claws on cobblestone, I'm stoned

Beware what stalks you in the night
Beware the She-wolf and her bite
Her mystic lips tell only lies
Her hidden will to kill in disguise

"This is a song about the ex-wife of an ex-friend." (Mustaine, in concert, 1997)

Dave once said this song is about a friend who got divorced and then went back to his old wife because he couldn't get anything better.

"A staple of our live set, the 'Detroit Rock City' section (as I like to call it) gave us a great opportunity to stretch out and really do some jamming in concert." (Friedman, 2002)

As medieval as Merlin
A pact for power was made
Lucifer in transition
It's time the price was paid

Scorching the domain
The vortex of pain

A telestic message
Written in torment
Howl out dirges
Like the horns of Jericho
Distorted faces
Writhing in rage
Walls of purgatory
Tumble down
Endless death
The jewels of a crown

"We demoed this one for Youthanasia, but we decided to hold on to it until Cryptic... I liked the solo that I improvised on the old demo version so I copied it note for note for this album version." (Friedman, 2002)

FFF

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine, Ellefson, Friedman, Menza)

Looking for a cure within the human race
Eliminate the poor, how much longer will it take
Burning up the tents of the rank and file
Exterminate their lives, crack a demon smile

Crushing down, caving in our will to live
Getting rid of man's mistakes
To take a lost life, lock it up, break it down
How much more can we take

Fight for freedom, fight authority
Fight for anything, my country tis' of me

Cry for absolution, it's not the end for me
A last minute pardon, one final reprieve
Resist the war machine, don't get in its path
Fight to die a free man and reap the aftermath

Crushing down, caving in our will to live
Getting rid of man's mistakes
To take a lost life, lock it up, break it down
I don't know how much more I can take

Fight!... It's my country

"Our manager at the time didn't 'get' this tune, so I spent a lot of time explaining the power that it had. Still, it's a bad sign when you have to explain that kind of thing - kind of like having to explain a joke... Anyway, this was also demoed for Youth... with different lyrics. Probably the most technically interesting solo on this album, and overall the most 'Megadeth' song on the album as well." (Friedman, 2002)

This song is about a "positive" gang, which was active in southern California. Their slogan and name was "Fight For Freedom." They took part in riots in Los Angeles in 1992, in demonstrations, anti-rascism, pro ecological and peace actions

Dave said that he was sick of hearing, "Ask not what you can do for your country/Ask what your country can do for you," so he wrote a new one, "My country 'tis of me," a parody, of course, of "America the Beautiful." During the June 13 concert in Arizona, he dedicated this song to the death of Timothy McVeigh.

One Thing

(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)

One Thing
That I got for you
Is the one thing
That you never do

One thing makes you feel brand new
Is the one thing that your coming to
Just the one thing
Gets you in the mood

You call my number in the middle of the night
To tell me nothing else can make you feel alright
But its rings and rings you hang it up
And call me back again

One thing
That I got for you
Is the one thing
That you never do

One thing
That you got to choose
Is the one thing you can never lose
Just the one thing is your attitude

You call my name in the middle of the night
When your making love and it feels alright
But it's him not me
Can't you see a shot of reality?

I know what you do
I know what you want to do
I know when the lights go out
I know what you are gonna to do

One thing
That I got for you
Is the one thing
That you never do

Just the one thing gets you in the mood
Just the one thing its your attitude
One thing is one thing
Just the one thing